Axel Stockburger, “From Appropriation to Approximation”

in Andy Clarke and Grethe Mitchell, eds., Videogames and art (Bristol, UK; Chicago: Intellect, 2007).

Relation between contemporary fine arts practice and video games
Museum/gallery shows featuring games, ontological debates
Huizinga/McLuhan: games as a core element of culture
McLuhan: “Games are popular art, collective, social reactions to the main drive or action of any culture.”
Divergence between art and games with literary texts (individual narratives, inner focus)
Both art and games are spatio-temporal zones set apart from the everyday
Rules/Freedom
Boris Groys “On the New,” - differentiation between profane world and art (traditionally, this line is the gallery)
Stable context of the gallery has become changing and unstable
Create contexts, examine/create/transform the rules governing the emergence of art
Duchamp: player as both artist and audience simultaneously (games as entirely individual aesthetic pleasure)
Two ways games are entering the artworld (museums, galleries): as cultural products worthy of exhibition/as components of fine art practice
Relationship between games and fine art is between appropriation and approximation
Back and forth borrowing (how and why?)
Stockburger only really looks at it in one direction (games -> art)
Many different motivations for incorporating games into fine art
Appropriation of game iconography
Pop art – games are an important part of contemporary media/pop culture
Not concerned with rules, game mechanics, etc.
Usually traditional means (painting, drawing, video)
Removes “active choice of what to experience” (?)
Reference to games/game culture
“Without interfering with or relating to the game technology itself” (I disagree, it's not so totally separate. Removing game iconography from a game context or capturing an instance of gameplay could very much be a way of interfering with and relating to the game technology/mechanics.)
Intervention in the form of Mods and Hacks
Internet distribution (patches)
Skinning, maps, models (origins in fan activity)
Infiltrate game culture
Accessibility of mod tools
“Hacker” culture/image/archetype
Deconstruction of game graphics into purely aesthetic abstraction
Transform profane objects into art spaces
Museum in game (rather than vice versa) – Chris Cornish, re-load.org
Artist games
Low budget, often web-based
Newsgames, artgames, etc. - move beyond entertainment